Nancy Ares, assistant professor, has co-authored the book Geographies of Difference: The Social Production of the East Side, West Side, and Central City School with Edward Buendía of the University of Utah. Published by Peter Lang, the book is part of the Intersections in Communications and Culture series.

Geographies of Difference is a powerful book documenting the many social, historical, cultural, and political processes that students and educators negotiate within urban education. Ares and Buendía use a case study methodology to identify how different influences within a large metropolitan school district both obscure and shape meanings about race and social class.

Thomas Popkewitz, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gave Geographies of Difference a positive review, stating that it is an “important book considering the ethics, politics, and challenges of schooling in producing an equitable society, and arguing that ‘urban’ is a cultural space that divides children along racial and class lines.”